September sees the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and as the newly elected Prior (much to my astonishment) and new Parish Priest of Holy Cross, Leicester, I feel it only right that I should say something about what has always been a favourite feast of mine.
The Gospel is taken from John 3, and includes the first of the three “lifted up” sayings of Christ in that Gospel. While in the other three Gospels, Christ three times speaks of his forthcoming passion and death and his subsequent resurrection, in John we find three occasions on which Christ speaks of being “lifted up” – a reference to his crucifixion, undoubtedly, but at the same time to his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. This reflects the insight that in some sense the crucifixion of Christ is his exaltation, his glorification.
